


Precipice

by readythefanons



Series: The Big Apple [5]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Gen, guest starring elena cardenas and marci stahl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 15:52:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8215466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readythefanons/pseuds/readythefanons
Summary: She’s sleeping again (not well), and she doesn’t clutch her mace so hard it leaves indents on her hand (much). She’s doing better. She ends up asking Foggy to touch her face.





	

Mrs. Cardenas walks into the offices of Nelson and Murdock with a problem with her landlord, a man by the name of Tully. People like Mrs. Cardenas are the reason her bosses are here in Hell’s Kitchen instead of the shiny building where they could have worked. And it is for Mrs. Cardenas that Karen and Foggy set off for said shiny building: the offices of Landman and Zack, LLC. 

The offices of Landman and Zack surpass even Karen’s expectations, and Union Allied was hardly a modest, old-fashioned place. It’s all glass and metal and marble polished to a mirror shine. It’s also got Marci Stahl, who looks like she could chew glass without blinking. Even as she reels from the garbage that’s coming out of the other woman’s mouth, Karen’s impressed. Karen knows she and Foggy are right, but she can hear how persuasive Marci is—and Marci doesn’t even bother to pretend to believe what she’s saying. Karen might have been like Marci if she’d made some different decisions when she was making and then remaking herself. 

Karen is also impressed by Foggy. Normally he’s, well, he’s _Foggy:_ gregarious, kind, never serious when he can help it. When he decides to be serious, though, Karen can see how he might have fit himself into the steel and glass of Landman and Zack. The Foggy he presents to Marci is all ice and brass. Marci is probably right when she tells him he would have killed it at Landman and Zack.

They leave. Karen’s glad when he turns back into the flesh-and-blood man she knows. Flesh-and-blood Foggy is the one who cares enough to venture into the offices of Landman and Zack, and flesh-and-blood Foggy is the one who goes to see Mrs. Cardenas in her apartment afterwards. 

Mrs. Cardenas’s apartment is fucking wrecked. There are holes in every wall, and even without hearing Mrs. Cardenas’s story, Karen can tell that they were made to make anyone in the apartment feel like a second-class citizen. Mrs. Cardenas asks if Tully is going to fix her apartment. It’s flesh-and-blood Foggy who tells her no, but _they_ will. Foggy will fix it, and Karen will help. Foggy knows people who can do the things that they can’t. And without even thinking about it, Foggy bundles Mrs. Cardenas’s neighbors into his fold as well. His voice is even and earnest as he promises, “We’re going to take care of you.”

They can’t do much without good tools, but they clear away the pieces of wall and generally clean up as much as they can. Mrs. Cardenas makes them dinner and steps out. She says something noncommittal about joining them in a bit, but Karen can recognize a setup when it’s flashing big red lights above her head. Foggy tells funny stories and laughs at Karen’s. 

Karen is in a bit of a weird position because she really likes Foggy. She likes Foggy and Matt is attractive, and she—she’s doing better. She’s sleeping again (not well), and she doesn’t clutch her mace so hard it leaves indents on her hand (much). She’s doing better. She’s not floundering but she still hasn’t found _solid ground._ What she has found instead is Nelson and Murdock (and, as a result, Matt and Foggy). So she likes Foggy, and she thinks maybe she and he are on the precipice of something, but she doesn’t know what it is or even what she wants it to be. She has an idea of what Foggy would like it to be but she doesn’t want… kissing and holding hands and all of that. She wants laughter and shoulder bumps. Matt is attractive, and Karen _thinks_ he has a lot in common with her, but then one of those things is keeping people at arm’s length. (Except maybe Foggy.) Karen and Matt make themselves difficult to know well, but Karen’s sure that they could have something stronger than she’s ever had, if they let themselves. And Foggy loves Matt and Matt loves Foggy, and Karen loves that about them. So Karen wants Foggy, and she wants Matt, and she wants to watch them with each other, and she wants to feel like she can stand on her own again. 

Anyway, she ends up asking Foggy to touch her face. The air between them is suddenly thick and Karen feels like she’s hurtling through the air: apprehensive and exhilarated. Foggy’s hands are warm and strong. 

Then the windows explode inward and Karen is literally hurtling through the air, and Foggy too, and oh good glass shards. Mrs. Cardenas staggers into the room and she’s bleeding. There’s another explosion. Foggy runs out of the apartment to look for neighbors in need of help. (He doesn’t even think twice.) They take Mrs. Cardenas to the hospital. Foggy has glass in his side. Karen gets Foggy checked in and stays with him. 

They take turns calling Matt’s phone. Karen has to talk Foggy down from trying to leave the hospital to look for him. She tells him he’s a hero (not actually a lie) and kisses him on the forehead. The news is playing nothing but reports on the bombings and their aftermath—there’s not much information being added, but no one, Karen included, can bear to turn it off. She’s been in New York long enough to know that this is what you do during an attack. You watch the news like it can offer any help, any guidance. You forget you’re supposed to be apart from everything that makes up the city, and in so doing become a part of it. She has familiarized herself with fear, but being afraid for someone she’s actually close with is as different as it is unwelcome. Matt still isn’t picking up and he could be dying or he could be uninjured, and they have no way of knowing.

Suddenly there’s a new urgency in the voice of the reporter on the television. She says they have some new footage and it cuts to video of a man in black beating the stuffing out of some men. Karen’s masked rescuer is being accused of terrorism and Foggy tries to be kind about it but Karen can’t really hear him. Part of her is frantically analyzing everything the masked man said or did for anything threatening to her, anything unsavory. Part of her is absolutely certain that the masked man can’t possibly be responsible for _bombing_ Hell’s Kitchen. She feels like she’s on the edge of something, balancing on a precipice. Part of her is screaming setup, conspiracy, and most of her is tired to her bones. It has been a long day. It has, in fact, been a long several weeks, and they have been entirely too filled with shadows and threats. 

When she goes to bed that night (more like morning) she wonders whether this is just another nadir, if things will get easier after this.

(Somehow, she doubts it.)

**Author's Note:**

> I will finish writing and posting this series even if it takes me 100 years.


End file.
